Sighting means for machine guns



Dec. 10, 194 v. s|Az|K SIGHTING MEANS FOR MACHINE GUNS I Filed Oct. 17, 1944 I nventar Vicfor Patented Dec. 10, 1946 UNITED STATES PATENT GFFHQE 2,412,298 g r A V SIGHTING MEANS FOR MACHINE GUNS Victor Siazik, Detroit, Mich. Application October 17, 1944, Serial No. 559,023

1 Claim.

My invention relates to improvements in machine guns and to sighting and firing equipment therefor, the primary object in view being to equip such guns for accurate sighting thereof and firing from a location well below the line of fire from the same, as a safety provision for those engaged in trench warfare and the like.

- Other and subordinate objects are also comprehended by my invention, all of which, together with the precise nature of my improvements, will be readily understood when the succeeding description and claim are read with reference to the drawing accompanying and forming part of this specification.

In said drawing:

Figure 1 is a view in side elevation, partly in section, of a machine gun equipped according to my invention in the preferred embodiment thereof,

Figure 2 is a fragmentary detail view partly in longitudinal section and partly in side elevation taken through the breach end of the gun,

Figure 3 is a view in perspective of the upper mirror and the mounting therefor.

Reference being had to the drawing by numerals, my invention has been shown therein, by way of exemplification solely, as embodied in a machine gun I, conventionally illustrated as sufiicient for the present purposes, and which is of a type commonly used in trenches and embodying a barrel 2, casing 3, magazine l from which a cartridge clip 5 extends into the breech end of the casing,,and a tripod stand embodying the usual column formed of sections 6, 1, relatively telescopic, and upon one of which said casing 3 is pivotally mounted as at 8, for vertical tilting. The casing 3 is provided with the usual front sight 9 and the firing pin ll], as shown in Figure 2, is held retracted, in a well known manner, by the usual sear I l pivoted intermediate its ends, as at l2, for upward swinging of the rear end thereof to release said pin l 0.

According to my invention, a right angled, bar-like support, forming a vertical arm 13 and a horizontal arm M, is bolted at the upper end of the vertical arm l3, as at IE, to the breech end of the casing 3 to depend therefrom with the horizontal arm l4 extending rearwardly in the vertical plane of the casing 3 and remote from said casing so that it is located well down in a trench and below the surface level. The horizontal arm l4 terminates in a depending pistol grip IS. A trigger I1 is pivoted at l8 in ears [8' depending from said arm M in front of the hand grip l6 and is operatively connected to the rear end of a pull rod I9 slidably extending through depending guides 20 on said arm Id. The front end of the pull rod I9 is operatively connected, as at 2|, to one corner of a triangular crank plate 22 pivoted, as at 23, at another corner thereof to the arm It. A push rod 24 is pivotally connected, as at 25, to the third corner of said plate 22 and suitably extended upwardly through guide ears 26 on said arm l3 into the breech end of the barrel 2, at which point said rod 24 is pivotally connected, as at 21, to the rear end of the sear H to push said rear end of the sear upwardly.

A pair of upper and lower reflecting mirrors, or total prisms, 28, 29 are provided, one mounted on the breech end of the casing 3, as presently described, and the other suitably secured in the angle formed by the arms l3, I4, the arrangement being such that the upper mirror 28 is disposed in horizontal alignment with the sight I and inclined at a angle to said line to reflect an image of a target being sighted downwardly into the lower mirror 29 which is arranged at the same angle to reflect the image rearwardly.

A telescope 35 is suitably mounted on the arm i l in the rear of the mirror 2!! with its axis at a right angle to the line of reflection from the mirror 28 to the mirror 2! The upper mirror 28 is preferably mounted in a hood-like, forwardly opening shield 3| suitably secured, as at 32, in a fork 33 fixed to the casing 3, in any desired manner, as at 36. The telescope 36 is designed to be set for a power such that the sight 9 will not be magnified to one sighting through the telescope, but only the image of the target reflected in the mirror 29.

The use and operation of the described invention will ,be readily understood. The gun is sighted through the telescope 30, an image of the target being sighted is deflected by the upper mirror 28 downwardly into the lower mirror 29 to be viewed through said telescope and magnified thereby. Firing is accomplished by pull on the trigger I! Which thrusts the push rod [9 forwardly, rocks the crank plate 20 clockwise and thrusts the push rod 24 upwardly to release the sear H in the manner already described. Both sighting and firing are performed at a level Well below that of the line of fire from the gun so that when the barrel 2 and casing 3 are disposed above the top of the trench 35, the operator of the gun is well protected and hidden in the trench.

The foregoing will, it is believed, suffice to impart a clear understanding of my invention without further explanation.

Manifestly, the invention, as described, is susceptible of modification without departing from the inventive concept, and right is herein reserved to such modifications as fall within the scope of the appended claim.

What I claim is:

In a gun including a barrel, 2. front sight on said barrel, and means for supporting the barrel in elevated position, a right-angled bracket depending from the breech end of the gun and including a vertical arm and a lower end horizontal arm, a, pair of upper and lower image reflecting members one mounted on the breech end of the gun in the line of sight and the other mounted on said bracket at the lower end thereof and in the angle formed by said arms, the upper member being inclined relative to the line of sight and facing forwardly of the barrel to reflect the image of a target downwardly, and the lower member being similarly inclined in the line of reflection from the upper member and facing rearwardly of said barrel to reflect the image rearwardly, and a telescope mounted on said lower arm for viewing the image reflected in said lower member.

VICTOR SIAZIK 

